


Childish Things

by liketreesinnovember



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: AU, Child!Tyrion, Elia POV, Gen, Oneshot, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liketreesinnovember/pseuds/liketreesinnovember
Summary: This was born from the question "What if Tyrion had been fostered in Dorne?" Which gave me an excuse to write about Elia and a very young Tyrion.





	Childish Things

“He just sits there and stares all day. Why doesn’t he play with the other children?”

“That is not a child, it’s Lord Tywin’s Doom. Just look at his eyes!”

Elia ignored the other girls and watched the small boy watching the other children frolicking and splashing in the Water Gardens. Laughter echoed around them but the dwarf looked grave, not the way a child should look at all.

Maybe he was afraid to play with the others. Was he unhappy here? A child very far from his home might be scared and lonely, even in a place like this full of laughing, happy children. Elia could sympathize. In a fortnight she would have to leave Sunspear in order to begin the journey to King’s Landing. She would marry Prince Rhaegar, and she would be happy, she knew, but still she would miss her home. This place especially, the serenity of the Water Gardens and the simple, sweet noise of childish play that reminded her of her own childhood.

She was sad for the boy, she realized. Lord Tywin’s Doom. Elia remembered when she had made the journey to Casterly Rock with her mother and brother, and how the castle had been abuzz with the news: Lady Joanna had given birth to a monster that had killed her. That was all Oberyn talked about for days, until Cersei and Jaime Lannister finally took them to see the baby. Elia had been tired from the journey, and the chilly sea air had not agreed with her weak temperament. The whole time she had been sneaking glances at handsome Jaime, whom mother had said that she was to marry. Elia had hoped that Jaime wouldn’t hold her weakness against her. She would be a good wife to him, she was sure, and give him many healthy children. That is until Lord Tywin refused the offer.

Oberyn had been disappointed at the revelation of Tyrion Lannister, but Cersei had claimed that the small red infant had murdered her mother, and pinched him until he cried. What kind of life had this boy known in that cold Rock?

Elia approached Tyrion, who was sitting on a patch of grass away from the pools where the other children were playing, totally absorbed in their play so that he had not heard her coming.

“Why don’t you play with them?” she asked.

The boy looked momentarily startled, but then he shook his head, as if the suggestion were ludicrous. “They let the common whelps play with the high born children,” he said. “My father would have called that grotesque.”

“Your father isn’t here,” Elia said, defensively.

She thought she detected a hint of a smile on the boy’s face at that, but perhaps she had been imagining it.

It was a few nights later when she had spied the boy creeping down to the gardens. Curious, Elia couldn’t help but follow.

The moonlight reflecting off the water was beautiful, and no one disturbed the peaceful surface of the pools at this time of night. Without the echoing sounds of children’s joy, the place was entirely different, but no less lovely. Elia followed the boy to the center of a deep pool at the edge of the gardens. She hung back, watching, as he stripped himself of his clothing and dove in.

For a moment, Elia wondered if she should jump in after him. She had never seen him in the water. Perhaps he didn’t know how to swim? But then the boy was coming up for air, paddling swiftly and laughing.

She watched him dive and twirl like an otter, and she couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. That was a mistake, though. The boy heard her, and froze, glaring in her direction, hiding up to his neck in the water.

“I’m sorry,” Elia said, deciding it was no use hiding anymore. “I didn’t know you could swim. Why don’t you ever swim with the other children?”

Tyrion looked at her defiantly, his odd eyes full of fear, and anger at being spied at. He was doing his best to hide himself in the water in between darting furtive glances at the pile of discarded clothes on the edge of the pool. “I don’t want anyone to see me,” he said. “Go away.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again, although she was bristling from the boy’s rudeness. “I’m not sure what mother and father would say if they found out that you were sneaking out here alone at night, though.”

The boy’s eyes widened at that, and all his defiance seemed to crumble away. “Please, don’t tell them,” he said, his voice riding suddenly. “I won’t do it again. I don’t want them to send me back to Casterly Rock. I’ll be good, I promise.” He sounded almost close to tears, for the first time seeming truly like a child since Elia had spoken to him.

“Quiet, child,” she said, gentler. “No one’s going to send you back.”

The boy sniffed and shivered in the water, embarrassed at his outburst. He climbed out of the pool and sat at the edge with his knees pulled up to his chest. He was still wary of her, but he let Elia help him get dressed. She walked with him back to the palace in silence, with the moonlight reflecting off the pools around them.


End file.
